Turkey-Russia closer to building strategic partnership

Turkey and Russia have come closer to building a strategic partnership
by agreeing to deepen cooperation in the area of energy and work on a
plan to lift visa requirements for their citizens.
The two countries also have ambitious plans to boost their trade volume
to $100 billion in the coming years. “Our relations are developing and
becoming more diversified in the political, military, economic and
cultural spheres. What is exciting for me is that both sides have a
positive will,” to further boost ties, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdog(an said at a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart,
Vladimir Putin, late on Wednesday.

Erdog(an, who had talks with Putin and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
during his one-day visit to Moscow, announced that the two countries
will start work on abolishing visa requirements for their nationals.

“The prime minister [Putin] has just given us the good news that efforts
to mutually abolish the visa requirements will go forward as planned,”
Erdog(an said, adding that the Turkish side hoped that a final deal
would be concluded during an upcoming visit by Medvedev in May or June.

Erdog(an said later in I.stanbul that the two countries would also hold
a strategic cooperation council meeting during Medvedev’s visit, a
cooperation platform similar to the ones Turkey launched with
neighboring Syria and Iraq last year.

Both Putin and Erdog(an pledged to increase the use of national
currencies in bilateral trade, which the leaders want to boost to $100
billion within the next five years. Erdog(an said the aim is achievable
in the next four years.

In another key achievement of Erdog(an’s short visit, Energy Minister
Taner Y?ld?z and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin signed a
memorandum on building nuclear power plants in Turkey in a sign that
Russian firms would be given a second chance to build Ankara’s first plant.

Turkey canceled a previous tender to build a nuclear power station,
after a court earlier ruled the tender, won by Russian Inter RAO and
Atomstroiexport and Turkey’s Park Teknik, invalid due to problems with
the pricing of electricity from the plant.

Putin and Erdog(an also had talks on energy projects. Putin said the
governments of Italy, Turkey and Russia should consider signing a deal
to support the proposed Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline, an oil link between
Turkey’s Black Sea coast and the Mediterranean.

The Russian prime minister also said Russia has won Turkish support for
all its major oil, gas and nuclear projects, while carefully avoiding
its usual harsh criticism of the rival trans-Turkish EU-backed Nabucco
gas pipeline. He said Ankara had pledged to fully clear the Russian gas
pipeline project South Stream before November 2010, when construction is
due to begin.

“We have an agreement that before Nov. 10, 2010 ... the Turkish
government will make all the necessary judgments and issue a
construction permit. In the course of today’s talks Mr. Erdogan
confirmed these intentions,” Putin said. “I very much hope this work
will be finished as planned,” he said, adding that the work on South
Stream was going according to plan with environmental, geological and
seismic studies near completion.

Putin also said the project, which apart from Russia’s gas export
monopoly Gazprom involves Italy’s ENI, may benefit from an
inter-governmental agreement between Russia, Turkey and Italy.

Turkey aspires to become a key transit hub for Europe, but is facing a
tough balancing game between rival projects supported by Moscow and the
European Union. It insists South Stream and Nabucco are not rivals.

Putin added that cooperation with Turkey should also involve asset swaps
between major firms and added Russian firms were ready to take part in
the privatization of Turkey’s state assets.

Russia: No link between Armenia ties, Karabakh

Putin also told Erdog(an that Turkey should not link the problem of
Nagorno-Karabakh, a region of Azerbaijan populated by ethnic Armenians
who are now in control of the area, to its bilateral relations with
Armenia. “Both the Nagorno-Karabakh problem and the Turkish-Armenian
problem are very complicated by nature. I do not think it is right to
tie them into one package,” Putin said. “It is unwise from both a
tactical and a strategic point of view to package these problems
together,” he added.

On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov echoed Putin at a
press conference with his Armenian counterpart, Eduard Nalbandian. “To
try and artificially link those two issues is, in my opinion, not
correct,” Lavrov told reporters in Yerevan. “We are interested in this
relationship normalizing. The sooner that happens, the better for the
whole region.”

Turkey and Armenia agreed in October last year to establish diplomatic
ties and reopen their land border, closed by Ankara in 1993. But the
accords need parliamentary ratification, a step Turkey says depends on
Armenia making concessions in the festering conflict with Turkish ally
Azerbaijan over the breakaway mountain region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

“I don’t want to have the impression, and I think the international
community also does not, that Turkey is specially blocking the
ratification of the protocols,” Nalbandian said. “What’s a reasonable
timeframe? It’s not dragging it out or creating artificial barriers.”

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